Two months ago, with the help of Chen Wen, Yu Guowang captured the Tiantai County town that once made him return in a defeat. With the manpower and material resources of Tiantai County, the strength of Yu Guowang's troops was also improved to a certain extent. Although Chen Wen quietly left the Ming army sequence that made a big fuss in Taizhou, his old brother Jin Tang successfully reused Chen Wen's previous old tricks. Yu and Jin also successfully won the Sanmen County town not far from Tiantai County.

During this period, the Ming army in Taizhou was greatly boosted by the successive victory of Yu Guowang. After that, with the continuous harassment, it caused considerable danger to the Qing army in Taizhou and the Qing army in the southern line that was preparing to go to Zhoushan from Taizhou north. Especially when Yu Guowang, Jintang and several other coalition forces formed by Taizhou Ming army approached Linhai County, Taizhou Prefecture City, even Ma Jinbao was forced to suspend the military operation to Zhoushan north, thus sharing the great pressure for the Ming army in Zhoushan.

When he first faced Taizhou in Linhai County, Yu Guowang, the main force of the Qing army of Jinhua Prefectures, relied on the stage type passed to him by Chen Wen, and the unfinished Spanish formation, he almost did not take much effort to resolve Ma Jinbao's offensive. If Ma Xin had not forcibly broken through the formation of Jin Tang's troops, he might have achieved greater results.

He conquered two county towns in a row, led the anti-Qing movement in the entire Taizhou, and even repelled the attack of the powerful Qing army, thus holding some of the enemy troops for the emperor who was in the battle formation. This was the most glorious period of Yu Guowang's military career so far, and even more glorious than when he was named Xinchang Bo.

After some celebration, Yu Guowang did not forget to continue to maintain his presence in the local area. This was his purpose here and the only thing he could do for the emperor who gave him a title.

However, after the Qing army made a comeback, the "Spanish phalanx" that once surprised Yu Guowang and the Ming army in Taizhou became as fragile as straw paper under the attack after the Qing army changed its tactics.

It was still the same battlefield. Before the Qing army approached, it carried out a tiger squat cannon hidden in the formation. At that moment, after discovering the intention of the Qing army, the Ming army under Yu Guowang was almost stunned for a moment, and then fell into fear and could not extricate themselves. Then it began to retreat unconsciously, and even the officers forgot their mission.

As the cannon sounded, the flames spewed out by the tiger squatting cannon wrapped in iron sand, and the stones swept towards the Ming army's front. After that, Yu Guowang's shield hands in the first row of the Spanish phalanx were almost wiped out, and even the close spearmen were quite hit by such primitive shotguns.

In fact, not many people were actually killed on the spot, or were worried about their lives. More Ming troops suffered only limited flesh and blood injuries. However, the flames, smoke from the artillery, and the subsequent casualties still shattered the Taizhou Ming army, which was not a strong soldier before, in an instant.

Fear teared up the will of the Ming army under Yu Guowang's army like a demon. The hand-to-hand infantry that was still a vassal in the army a few months ago, or even until that moment, were immediately defeated by fear, and they left their weapons and turned around and screamed to escape. The bird gunners who were regarded as elite in Yu Guowang's army could not stop the rushing in and were even carried away.

In this way, the Spanish phalanx, which had been training for several months and showed strong combat ability in the competition and the first confrontation with the Qing army, was completely torn apart after the tiger squat cannon was loaded, ignited, and fired for a moment.

Riding on the war horse, Yu Guo stared at the soldiers in front row screaming and fleeing, even to the point where he didn't care about the direction. Fear spread out, and the entire battle formation began to dye black from the front line like white paper stained with ink, until the entire battle formation was dispersed.

The central army's front was instantly shattered, and the Qing army on both wings also launched a fierce attack. Yu Guowang, who was still unable to extricate himself from disbelief, watched Jin Tang's flag be chopped down with his own eyes, and watched Gao Yiqing lead his personal soldiers to launch a desperate counterattack against the Qing army, but his ears were screams full of fear.

In a daze, he was taken away from the battlefield by his soldiers, and then restrained his surviving remnants and returned to Tiantai Mountain. However, this scene always echoed in Yu Guowang's mind, which was particularly clear. The questions that were stirred deep in his heart also bothered him until this moment.

"Why, why is this happening?!"

Chen Wen could understand Yu Guowang's confusion and confusion. Even when he first heard that Yu Guowang's troops were easily defeated by the Qing army, he also had such questions. After all, it was a Spanish phalanx. Even if it was just a phased product, it was regarded by countless people as a weapon to easily crush the feudal army in the network of later generations. How could it be so easy to be defeated by the Green Camp soldiers? Not some elite Green Camp soldiers?

But if you think about it carefully, it is normal. Although the Spanish phalanx is strong, it is just a battle formation, and it can even be said to be just a relatively strong body. The most important thing is the inner things. For example, high discipline, reasonable training, such as the command of the arm and the most critical team spirit, this is the soul of the Spanish phalanx and even the modern military phalanx in later generations.

However, Yu Guowang's troops were essentially still a feudal army that was feeding empty wages, drinking blood to support family members, and personal soldiers: the system of major and large-scale generals and general soldiers threatened the implementation of military discipline and command; officers exploited and enslaved soldiers, and the differences in the rank and treatment of personal soldiers and ordinary soldiers seriously affected the unity within the army, thus causing extremely serious damage to the team spirit.

If the soul is weak, then no matter how strong the body is, it is just a sign of its appearance. Once the spirit collapses, the body will disintegrate and shatter. It is naturally not new to be defeated by other tactics used by the same feudal army.

But how should I explain it to Yu Guowang...

"You know, the last general of the general was a general under the command of King Qiyang. By the time of Emperor Muzong, he was a junior, so he was a businessman. When he first started, the shops, shopkeepers, and accounts in my family were all promoted by the company according to their performance in the past years. Every time he was promoted, he could increase his salary and even own shares to his descendants. Therefore, everyone in the shop worked hard to manage my family and even my wealthy family."

"After that, as the number of shops increased, it also began to spread far and near. Due to road problems, some shops that were inconvenient to supervision appeared to be nepotist, so that the shopkeepers would not do their best to see that there was no way to promote. They colluded with bill offices, customers, and governments to make profits from it, and they suffered a lot of losses. Later, my family was forced to close some shops. The business scope was narrowed to strengthen supervision and management and reduce losses."

Yu Guowang has heard of Chen Wen's life experience. But he didn't understand what this has to do with the recurrence of the Taizhou war.

"In the eyes of the last general, the same is true for the military."

"For example, the prosperous Tang Dynasty initially adopted the system of government troops, and at the end of the Sui Dynasty, they wiped out all the heroes, then destroyed the Turks, pacified Goguryeo, and swept across the Western Regions. The Tang army pointed to the banner of the Tang army, and the Tartars were all invincible. At that time, the Tang army not only used iron cavalry that rushed to the desert, but also more of the infantrymen holding long spears and charging in the rain of arrows."

"In the era of Emperor Gaozong, when Emperor Gaozong of the Wushu, land annexation was serious, the equal-field system was destroyed, and the status of the government soldiers was gradually declining, and society was ashamed of becoming the government soldiers. By the Kaiyuan and Tianbao periods, the government soldiers collapsed to an unparalleled level, and Xuanzong had to recruit soldiers as the main force of the Tang army."

"Since Xue Ne, the governor began to be very popular. When the quality of the soldiers was on a downward trend, generals at all levels had to use warriors who were good at fighting in front of the battlefield as the main force. In order to improve their treatment, these warriors gradually formed personal relationships with the master generals, such as adoptive father and son. Therefore, the army only knew that there were generals but not emperors, so the Anshi Rebellion broke out, and the prosperous Tang Dynasty declined, and even disappeared."

"For example, when the state dynasty came to recruit soldiers from the self-defense station, the main force of the battle also changed from infantry battle formations with spearmen as the main body to personal soldiers and servants as the backbone. In fact, the system of infantry composed of ordinary soldiers as vassals is also the case."

"Since the Liao incident, the soldiers of the Eastern Barbarians have gained more combat experience in the process of annexing the Jurchens and Mongolian tribes, but the state can only rely on a small number of personal soldiers and servants to fight. They are always in a situation where there are fewer soldiers and more. In addition, civil servants lead the troops, the generals of the big and small, and the system of soldiers as generals, so they have been defeated again and again, until today."

"In your previous army, soldiers were generals, and they were all the bad habits of eating empty wages and drinking blood to support family members. They only changed the empty wages and drinking blood to raising cavalrymen to raising musketeers. There was no difference in essence, and it could even be said that the effect was worse. Because today's firearm technology is not enough to complete the main killing on the battlefield, the chariot and artillery battalions of Sun Gelao when he compiled the Guanning Army are the most obvious examples."

"Back to the point, it is understandable that bird gunners in your army are treated better, and the same is true in Taisie. However, this is based on the exploitation and enslavement of ordinary hand-to-hand infantry soldiers. In addition, ordinary soldiers are private soldiers of military generals at all levels, so the cohesion of the battle formation cannot be exerted at all."

"When we arrived on the battlefield, there was no cohesion between the hand-to-hand infantry soldiers, and they had to face the Tartars' soldiers together. The better-treated bird gunners just stood behind and shot. They also had to be used as meat shields and were exploited and enslaved. If it were you, how much will you be able to fight?"

"this……"

Chen Wen's rebellious question made Yu Guowang stunned. He never thought that there was a problem with the system, because the civil servants and generals in the late Ming Dynasty have not tried to change the military system. Most of them are like Yu Guowang, and even if the rest can be considered, they dare not offend their colleagues to see whether the experiment is effective.

Yu Guowang remembered clearly that Chen Wen had previously disdained the old system in his army, and even privately suggested taking back financial and military power. But at that time, he was following him for many years and did not want to do anything, and was afraid that these officers who had lost their military power would surrender, so he had to refuse politely, and Chen Wen turned to practice the Spanish phalanx with peace of mind.

"The reason why the last general taught you the Spanish phalanx is to rely on its dense formation to fight against the loose formations composed of the front row of the Tartars, and to achieve the advantage of fighting more and less in the local battlefield."

"But the formation is just a formation. Faced with a weapon like a firearm that cannot even hold up a shield, you can only rely on the soldiers' fighting will to persist, and then pounce on them and tear the opponent apart to achieve victory, just like the last general's Nantang Camp before. Otherwise, even if there is a powerful formation, the soldiers' will is not firm enough, and they will not be able to exert their due power."

"So, how to improve the will of soldiers to fight?"

……………………

Half an hour later, Chen Wen sent away the lost Yu Guowang. Recently, the theories of modern military and the current traditions were huge. He just casually talked about the development of Nantangying, and did not say too many sensational arguments, but these were still a bit difficult for Yu Guowang to understand.

After waiting for Yu Guowang to settle down, Chen Wen continued to rush to Hulu Town. By the time Chen Wen arrived, all the personnel of the old camp and the people accompanying him had arrived, and even the defenders arrived here a few hours before his arrival.

But when he saw Wu Dengke and Li Ruixin, he was led to a remote military tent by the two without bringing Xuan comfort. After entering the military tent, the two immediately fell to the ground and claimed to be guilty of death.
Chapter completed!